A development sociologist with more than 20 years’ experience in the field, Dena has an honours degree in Industrial Sociology (UCT) and an MA in Social Development (UWC). She has a special interest in participatory practices and building learning organisations. Dena specialises in the design and evaluation of development interventions. She has recently been working in the area of policy influence as well as child and youth development and protection. Dena’s core skills include evaluation, research, training and facilitation.
Dena is a member of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association.
Recent experience highlights:
Applied research and evaluation
- Team leader for the Learning Coordinator role for Comic Relief Girls in Gangs Projects (2016 – 2020)
- Evaluator for the International Growth Centre, London School of Economics and Oxford University, for DFID and GDSI International (2015 – 2018)
- Team leader for the performance evaluation of the Technical Vocational Educational Skills Colleges Expansion and Capacity Building Programme implemented by the National Skills Fund, for the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the South African Government (DPME) and the Department of Higher Education (2016/17)
- Team leader for an evaluation of the National Drug Master Plan, DPME and Department of Social Development, South African Government (2015/16)
- Project Manager for the performance evaluation of the Community Work Programme, DPME and Department of Social Development (2014/15)
- Team leader for the evaluation of the USAID Botswana Health Programme (2015/16)
- Outcomes review of the Slum Dwellers International Alliance City Wide Fund Project (2016)
Programme design, MEL systems
- Designing the monitoring, evaluation and learning system for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) (2017)
- Design of community report card for Philippi Learner Journey for Amandla Development
- Theory of Change for Building Bridges Young African Leaders Programme of the Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice, University of Cape Town (2016)
Capacity Building
- Trainer for Southern Hemisphere public and in-house courses, as well as for Politics & Ideas and OnThinkTanks
- Designed and trained courses for CLEAR, University of Witwatersrand and DPME on Designing Implementation Programmes for Government in South Africa (2015/6)
- Mentor for grantees of Tshikululu Social Investments in the Environment Sector
Organisational strategy
- Team leader for the strategic review of UNICEF’s Child Protection Strategy in South Africa 2016 – 2019 (2015)
- Strategic Review of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
- Co-facilitator for Strategic Planning and Theory of Change for the i2i Facility of CENFRI and the Finmark Trust
- Co-facilitator of the Organisational Strategic Framework for Orbis Africa 2016 – 2020
- Team leader for the Development of a National Strategy For Prevention And Early Intervention Programmes in support of the Children’s Act, 2014 – 2018 (for UNICEF and DSD) (2013/14)